The mobile version of the game was released in 2015 for Android on local Korean store (T store), Google Play Store and on iOS (Apple iTunes store), later the game was updated with English text/voice support and later it got renamed to The School: White Day outside of Korea, a change which was later reverted.

An updated remastered definitive edition version of the game has been released on PS4 and PC (Steam) platforms in 2017 after several delays, simply titled White Day: A Labyrinth Named School, the original game title which was used for all regions, perhaps due to obvious fan feedback.[14][15][16] This version features graphical improvements, new additions to the gameplay and the story including a brand new storyline which introduces Yoo Ji-min - a new character who also appears on the Korean and International covers of the game.

Contents

Gameplay

"Notice: Features exclusive to the Definitive Edition (PS4/PC) must be explicitly stated."

— Wiki Staff

Running on the Unity Engine, ROI Games remade every asset for the game, aside from a few sound files and document scripts that remained identically the same, the 3d models, voice acting, and even the music were all redone, it features many additional content when compared to the original game, some of which were cut from the 2001 version.

Here the player is using a lighter to lighten up the environment

Like the original game, the game follows a similar game-play style regarding exploration and interaction with objects and characters, the mobile version relies on touch controls to move and look around and collect objects (which, in the mobile version, can be collected even if they were a few steps away).

When the game starts, players are shown a tutorial that instructs them about the controls, how
to walk, how to move the camera, how to run and how to save their game.

The player can buy food from vending machines to restore vitality and health.

Interactivity with objects in this game is a very common thing, for example when a cabinet or drawer is opened, players must first click on the object which makes the camera focus on it, afterwards they have the ability to open it.

Dialogue choices (mobile)

Like the original game, it features a Dialogue tree conversational system, the choices made
during these conversational segments affect the outcome of the game and which ending you get, which were also altered more or less.

The backpack inventory, where all collected items are kept.

The character's inventory is a backpack, however instead of General, Usable, Equipment and Collectibles sections, the inventory has been completely redesigned, now featuring new sections on the left side which are: Essential Items, Keys, Health Regeneration Items, Consumable Items, and Miscellaneous Items sections respectively. On the right side, going from the top to the bottom there are 5 circular buttons: Backpack, Map, Messages, Documents, and System which is the options menu now.

The player can collect several items in the game, sometimes key items related to the story, objective or puzzles in addition to health items such as Soybean Milk, First Aid Kit and so on.

A document

Documents were a prominent part of the original game to understanding the story and the origins of ghosts as well as solving puzzles and this remake is no different, it also adds several additional documents and alters a few others. Players will encounter these documents in a variety of locations while exploring the school.

There are several threats in this game, not just the Janitors and a single ghost here and there, as opposed to the original game, this game adds a wide range of ghosts, some are new and some are ones that didn't make the cut in the original game.

The pen, which is only usable in hell mode now.

Saving in this game was originally possible via using Pens as in the original game, this was later however reverted in an update and saving became limit-less, as long as you save in the Bulletin Board, which is the only location to save, as opposed to Note Pads in the original game. Pens however, may be used to retry the game if you fail or die during Hell Mode.

Plot

Premise

White Day, is a fear-inducing, survival horror game viewed, completely from a first-person perspective. White Day captures a distinctly Asian perspective and atmosphere, and centers around a high school that is swirling with legends and mysteries. The game follows the story of Lee Hee-Min, the protagonist, and other students who find themselves locked in the school late at night.

Cast

Endings

The Endings are named after different flowers. The first letter of each ending spell out W H I T E D A Y (White Chrysanthemum, Hyacinth, Ivy, Tuberose, Ebony, Dandelion, Althea, Yew). They are used for Puzzle Collection in both mobile, PS4 and PC version. Completing the puzzle would reward the player with a costume.

In the PC/PS4 version, two new endings are added into the game, Jasmine and Marguerite. They are only available in Yoo Ji-min's Route.

Earning each individual ending is affected by a hidden a affinity score (Good feeling score) of each corresponding female characters. Note that trying to see or touch the butt(or leg) of female characters (which you can do by crouching down near female characters) will cause the immediate decrease of the affinity score (Good feeling score) to the lowest value, moreover if you do that, then female characters will kick or punch you, which can injure you with severe damage.

Like the original version, the ending remains the same except few minor changes to it.

Development

The original game gained a lot of popularity in South Korea and tremendous cult-like following overseas, almost 12 years after it's release thanks to a group of dedicated fans who translated the game to English, making it accessible to many people world-wide. The fan patches and constant let's players on YouTube have re-established the game after it was thought to have become an abandonware title, which indirectly gave the push to Sonnori to remake the game and reinstate the company.

In March 2014, Sonnori's homepage got back online with a teaser video for a mobile version but closed again. Initially since 2011 the game was being co-developed by Sonnori (the formerly closed company) and Gachyon Soft (judging by promotional material), it started out as a port of the original game to mobile platforms but soon began shaping up into a complete remake. Early footage shows footage of the original game mixed with early preview of the early mobile port, which at the time has been using the assets from the original game, collections (possibly initial version of ghost collections) showcase several enemies / ghosts in their old model appearances, It's unknown if it was running on the old engine or a new one (Unity).

On 19th January 2015, News were out about White Day at This is game.com.
It was revealed to be developed by ROI Games (Sonnori's legal company name at the time) and was being directed and produced by the CEO of ROI Games, Lee Won Sool; who was the former CEO of Sonnori. This remake version was built from scratch on a new engine (Unity Engine) and includes graphical improvements and several other features (Ghosts, Ghost Collections, Gameplay Features, Stories and extended plot) not found in the original version of the game. Lee Won Sool also expressed his plan of making the game into a series.

Initially the game was aimed at mobile platforms only and started as a port of the original game however, with VR in mind, things changed in the following months where most of the game assets were remade and various platform releases were planned.
[17]

Initially, several different artworks were shown for the characters even the small screen time guy who is beaten in the begging of the game, the load screen showed artworks of several characters and some sort of collections.[18]

In May 2015, a media showcase coverage was held and representatives of ROI Games and Gachyon Soft revealed several details about the game and the improvements that were made, comparing the polygonal amount of the models (the original being around 700 polygon per character while each character in the remake is already proudly in the 15,000 polygon range), also noting other improvements such as deleted ghosts added back and ghosts that originally were only on ghost stories and new ones being added. Interestingly, 7 multiplayer scenarios and preview of the mode were showcased but didn't make it into the final game.[19]

Sonnori representative revealed that 'White Day' is planned for release on PlayStation 4. In particular, support for virtual reality head-mounted headset, the PlayStation VR, is expected to show the essence of the horror game.[24]

It was unveiled in the "Sony Computer Entertainment Korea" (hereafter SCEK) "G-Star 2015" lineup in Seocho-dong, Seoul, Nexon Arena e-Sports Stadium. The event has unveiled information on the 'White Day' PS4 version release.[24]

White Day "PS4 version" is expected to support the VR device developed by Sony, known as the "PlayStation VR". In other words, a player wearing the PlayStation VR and can play the game and the story as the protagonist.[24] Later, this evolved into a completely different game sequel.

2015/11/4

According to the announcement of the developer, the PSVR version was introduced as a different version (later in May 2016: revealed to be a sequel prequel), and not a simple port of the mobile version game.[25]

Release and marketing

2015/11/19

White Day (2015) Remake was released in T-store (Local Android app market in Korea), Google Play Store (Korean language) and is to be released on Apple 'App store' (Korean language) in December.

Updates change-log

2015/12/14

A big update was scheduled to be released for Android devices on the local Korean T Store and Google Play which introduced the King Real (hardest difficulty) which was featured in the original game, and additional special bonus costumes to the game. Scheduled to update soon and Other details are also further notice.

2015/12/18

A big update was released for Android devices on the local Korean T Store and Google Play.[King Real mode(hardest difficulty), special bonus costumes & Costumes DLC ]

Gamepad Support (Beta Service)

The game was released in Korea on iOS in Apple iTunes Store

2016/01/14

Added Resource Validation Tests

Added Costumes DLC (Couples Party Dress Package)

Gamepad Support function Enhancements, etc...

2016/02/19

Added Language option (Korean<->English) in Setting (Although commissioned a professional translation company but typos or misinterpretation can exist.). English dub wasn't applied, yet. (19/02/2016)

Cloud Save system support

Added Ending Credit skip function

Modified Ending Scene's Replay function

Added function ( Continue the Games at Recently Checkpoint ), etc...

2016/03/06

Announcements for The Global Version Worldwide Realese - It will be released around March 14th. ( Android OS/ iOS )[26]

'Sonnori' gave a free 'White day mobile version' for a limited time to celebrate the historic 'Inter-Korean summit 2018'. (ios / google playstore / ONE store <Korean local appstore/>)
The free event was held until April 30, 2018.

Definitive Edition [PC/PS4]

2016/04/14

In April 2016, due to ROI Games not being satisfied with overseas sales on mobile platforms (iOS and Android)[citation needed] a PC Version was announced and has been added by ROI Games on Steam Greenlight to allow voting for the game and gather feedback. The game was greenlit afterwards and pushed for a release.[27]

2016/06/29

Later in June, ROI Games posted an announcement on Steam in Korean stating that they are doing their best to push the quality of the PC Version over the mobile version with not just graphical improvements but additional content as well, while also hinting that it might be delayed to fall 2016 at best[citation needed]

A teaser trailer was finally revealed on Nov 16, 2016 for the promised PC version and it was also announced that the game would be coming to the PlayStation 4, despite initial attempt being shifted into a sequel title (and hinted in earlier tech demos), this is also the first time a PC/PS4 Version footage was shown and the game would include more content than just additional costumes, such as the addition of a new female character called Yoo Ji-min (유지민), a new ending collection and a playable female character added[28] and announced the release date. (2017 March 14th)

2017/02/26

The PC/PS4 Version's release date is delayed again due to problem with publishing other languages to overseas (international).

2017/03/09

They Announce Japanese localization version and release date in Japan[29][30]In Japanese localization version, 'Character name' and 'Basic School Uniform' will be changed as they said in an interview with the Japanese webzine.[31]

Lee Hui-min -> Yamamoto Yuuto (山本 勇人)(※ In the website of the Japan Mobile version, His name was written as Mishima Yuuto ( 三嶋 勇人 ). But His name was written as Yamamoto Yuuto (山本 勇人) in game. )

Change Basic School Uniform

Japanese Dubbing is added

Japanese version Original Ending theme song is added

UK Package Image (PS4)

2017/05/04

UK publisher 'PQube' announces White Day PS4 version website that introduces information and package image.[32][33]
And An introduction to the game was posted on the PlayStation EU official blog. It is also worth noting that PQube used the original title of the game (White Day: A Labyrinth Named School) which was used before the name change for the mobile English/International versions.[34]

2017/06/01

In June 1st 2017 (Japan time), Famitsu revealed the release date of the game in Japan to be August 24, 2017 and released 3 brand new screenshots.[13]

2017/06/02

ROI Games has released a press release about the release date and price in Korea of the game and released 8 brand new screenshots.[10][35]

2017/06/14

White Day's Official Facebook released a couple of screenshots comparing the 2015 mobile version to the PC/PS4 version. Most of them are completely changed such as the barricaded door is not barricaded and now shows the outside with benches. This is first update.

2017/06/23

The second update was released and now talks about effects.

2017/06/30

White Day's Official Facebook has release more information about Yoo Ji-min, a character who admires So-Young and refuses to let anyone get her who then becomes the second protagonist. Her storyline have to be unlocked in certain conditions. Therefore, she can be played.

At 01:00 am in Korea time, the game was officially released through PSN.
And the steam version was scheduled to be released at 11:00 pm in Korea time. But, the release was delayed due to a publisher's mistake, and the game was released at 3:00 am on the 23th.

Brand name change

Sometime after the PC Version was announced, the game was renamed on iOS and Google Play stores to "The School: White Day" without further notice, which became the international English title for the game. The Korean name remained unchanged (White Day: A Labyrinth Named School).

When contacted, the devs revealed that the intention was to make it simple and more familiar to audiences from the west and overseas, hinting over the fact that White Day may not be familiar to the targeted western and overseas audience. This change was once again reverted however, changing the game's title to "White Day: A Labyrinth Named School" on Steam and PS Store as well as the mobile version and the sequel.[citation needed]

Differences and features

Aside from modern graphics, the game features were almost completely altered, this includes:

New modern graphics as it is built on a completely new engine, as such the character faces, models and animations are more detailed now making them more expressive than in the original game, the mobile version of the remake itself tops the original version and resembles console graphics.

CG Trailer Vs Mobile (In game)

The gameplay was heavily altered and improved, the ghosts are no longer jump scare mechanics but are far more sinister than that (Far more 3d Ghosts in the game).

There are about 21 Ghosts in the game now (excluding enemies like Eun-mi and the Janitors).

8 Additional Ghost Stories were added in. Some previous stories were altered and updated heavily as well, previous ghosts (Such as: Spider Ghost, Doppelgänger) Received their ghost stories for the first time.

Some of the new Ghosts require Conditional Items to be met, a new feature in the remake.

It is now possible to collect cards known as Ghost Collections under special circumstances.

Some characters make an interactive physical appearance for the first time now as opposed to sounds, halos or just shadow ghosts.

Several Ending Scenario was altered by South Korean manhwa artist, Yoon Tae-ho (윤태호). He was in charge of Ending scenario continuity.

The game includes a variety of additional bonus costumes for Hui-min, the Janitors and even for the girls. This includes a Christmas special event that was held for December 2015.

The PC/PS4 Version, aside from improved graphics; it includes even more content such as a new character, a new ending collection, new ghosts, altered and updated locations (such as the exterior of the school that can been seen near the registration office) and updated features such as the Haunted Head Ghost being scarier, featuring new whispering sounds, appearing in different places very occasionally and randomly. A new set of DLC costume packs were also released, aside from remastered old ones.

Music

The music in this game was composed and produced unlike the original, which used various other pre-made soundtracks. The music (OST: Original Soundtrack) was not released yet. Currently, only a Limited Edition OST of the game is available.

In Limited edition OST, there are four songs: [Opening, Main theme, Ending, Ending (instrument)]

Reception

The game received generally mixed to favorable reviews. It holds an aggregator score of 67 on Metacritic.[36] favorable reviews cited it for holding up to the premise of the original and enhancing upon it with additional elements and scares not found in the original release. While others gave it mixed reviews citing that it does not live up to its name.

The Android version on Google Play holds a score of 4.4 of 5, while the Steam version has "Mixed" reviews, some of the bad reviews cite their dislike of the Janitor chasing them and some explaining that this remake is more cinematic in nature (when it comes to Ghosts) compared to the original.[40]

Jim Hargreaves from The Sixth Axis stated that "White Day has plenty of problems though it’s easy to see why some may see it as a cult hit and why its creators wanted a revival. It’s a clunky, vague, and often frustrating game yet, at the same time, there’s this great setting and some clever puzzles at work. It’s just a shame that, in order to get to the good stuff, you’re almost guaranteed to face some hardship."

Cory Arnold of Destructoid gave it a 6.5 of 10, stating that it's "Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy it a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled."[37]

Christian Mincks of Tech Raptor gave it a 7.5 out of 10, citing that: "If you can get past some minor control issues, White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is a unique horror experience with great level design, a gripping story, and more ghosts than you can shake a purification stick at."[38]

Sequel

Initially, a PSVR Version of the game was showcased in G-Star event in 2015, this was later revealed to be a sequel titled White Day 2: Swan Song (Initially known as "White Day: Swan Song" in South Korean and as The School: Swan Song internationally) which has been officially announced on May 10, 2016 for PlayStation 4 (PSVR) and is currently under development by ROI Games on the Unreal Engine 4.

Notes

Trivia

The coin in the remake has an embossed text that reads "Since 1953" which could be a hint to the establishment of the school or when the school currency was first created. It's also the year when the Korean War ended.

Unlike the original game, Lee Hui-min's name is fixed in this game and cannot be changed.

The plot was extended, endings were updated / altered, ghost stories were restored, new stories and ghosts were added, deleted ghosts were remade and added back, majority of ghosts are actually 3D rendered, several items and special items required to witness ghosts were added, various collections and other features were also added. The game also features multiple unlockable and DLC costumes.

A Multiplayer Mode was seen early in development and wasn't included in the final version.

According to ROI Games, the game sales overseas didn't meet their expectations; this is generally due to lesser interest in mobile games or buying mobile games in other countries.

The game was renamed overseas but the exact reason wasn't made clear, when asked, ROI Games stated that it's due to them wanting to expand the series and that "White Day" isn't a common name / known term overseas.[41] This was however undone for the remastered/updated console and PC version of the game, perhaps due to negative respone from fans against the name change.

The Japanese localized version of the game features a different setting where names of locations and characters are changed to Japanese ones and the Ghost Stories were also changed respectively, omitting any references to the Korean/Japanese war as well.

Translation errors

"Notice: Information about translation errors should be posted here. We could use information about the team / people that translated / localized this game here, please add it if you know while citing the source, thanks!"

— Wiki Staff

Classroom is referred to as "Homeroom", Homeroom or advisory is the classroom session in which a teacher records attendance and makes announcements. It can also be called Registration or Planning Period. The concept is used in schools around the world.[42]

Names are reversed, for the western and foreign audiences, such as Kim Seong-ah being Seong-ah Kim.

The Housemistress Spirit (Hangul: 사감의 영혼 ) is mistranslated as "Ghost of a Houseparent", literally it would be "The Housemaster Spirit / Spirit of a Housemaster" but since the term "Housemaster" cannot be used to describe a female Housemaster, the term "Housemistress" comes into play as that cannot be described in Korean (Assumed).[43] Houseparent is literally a term referred to a married couple taking care of young people or students living in a dormitory.[44]

The Voice Calling Me (Hangul: 나를 부르는 목소리 ; RR: naleul buleuneun mogsoli) was mistranslated as "Voice that Beckons Me", Beckon is usually referred to a hand signature or gesture, in this case It's not a beckon but rather a voice calling, though in rare cases "beckon" is used.

Talismans are referred to as "Tokens" - a token is a coin like items but a Talisman is an item with a magical / lucky charm property, both Sonnori and Roi Games called them "Talismans" but the translation team changed that.

Taegeuk Talisman has been renamed to "Yin-Yang Token" - the symbol on the talisman/plate is not a Yin-Yang at all, but the Taegeuk from the Korean flag.